BRITAIN: A Sinn Féin MP has caused fury at the Conservative Party conference by telling delegates he did not regret the Brighton bombing.
Conor Murphy, MP for Newry and Armagh, yesterday said the 1984 bombing of the Tory conference was part of a war. He said his only regret was that people had been driven to violence.
Mr Murphy was the first member of his party to take part in a debate during a Conservative conference.
Speaking at a fringe meeting in Blackpool, Mr Murphy was asked if he regretted the bombing. He said: "At the time I certainly did not regret it, I will be honest with you. I think it was part of a war, which was a very difficult war between the people of the island of Ireland.
"I regret that it came to a situation where people felt they had to take on violence in order to pursue their political ends."
His comments were condemned by opponents.
Ulster Unionist assembly member David Burnside, who was in the Brighton hotel at the time of the bombing, turned on Mr Murphy.
He said: "You blew up the centre of the democratic movement in the UK, the elected government of this country, and you have no remorse or regret that these murders were carried out and you should lower your head."
The meeting took place almost 21 years after the IRA detonated a bomb which killed five people at the Conservative conference in Brighton. Prime minister Margaret Thatcher had a narrow escape in the attack on the Grand Hotel.
Shadow Northern Ireland secretary David Lidington said later: "These comments show the distance republicans still have to travel. Whatever grievance republicans have had in the past, that does not justify taking a single human life."
Mr Lidington, speaking at the same event, added: "The thing that now would demonstrate they have put that terrorist past behind them would be a clear endorsement of the rule of law and the authority of the police. That they have yet to do." - (PA)